3 bold predictions for Cowboys-Eagles, including something besides screens Dallas can use against Philly's pass rush

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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) rolls from the pocket looking for a receiver against the New York Giants in the second quarter at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, September 16, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

With the Dallas Cowboys' (3-5) playoff hopes hanging by a thread, the team faces an incredibly tough five-game stretch, where Dallas will face the Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles (twice). Anything worse than a 3-2 record likely eliminates Dallas from playoff contention, and the team probably needs to go 4-1 to actually feel good about its playoff chances.

This difficult five-game stretch is bookended by tough contests against the division rival Eagles, who are also fighting for their playoff lives. The Cowboys desperately need a win to get momentum moving in their direction. A loss would all but finish the season, as Dallas would have to turn its eye toward the future rather than focus on a potential playoff berth.

Much like the Cowboys this week, it's time to get bold, so let's take a look at a few bold predictions for the Cowboys-Eagles game.

Maliek Collins records a sack off a spin move

The Eagles have one of the best offensive lines in football, and it will be tough for the Cowboys to generate pressure consistently without blitzing. Nevertheless, the one defender who appears to have a favorable matchup Sunday is Maliek Collins.

With David Irving out of the lineup, Collins figures to get a lot of snaps at the under tackle, or three-technique, position. Even though Dallas does have its defensive tackle switch sides, Collins should get plenty of snaps opposite Eagles left guard Isaac Seumalo, who is the weak link on the Philadelphia offensive line.

If the Dallas defense is going to generate some pressure with its four-man front, Collins has to take advantage of his snaps against Seumalo. One way Collins could potentially beat Seumalo is with a spin move. Collins is an extremely quick and fluid athlete for a defensive tackle, and it's tough for interior offensive linemen, who aren't exactly the most fluid and agile athletes, to laterally mirror against a quick spin move.

The Cowboys will even take it a step further, utilizing a pre-snap stunt alignment that facilitates Collins' spin move. Here's an example:

This is so difficult to block because the guard is initially worried about passing off the defensive tackle to the offensive tackle. He's anticipating the defensive tackle to penetrate while the defensive end loops around. Therefore, the guard isn't prepared for the defensive tackle to spin across his face, allowing the defensive tackle to generate pressure on the quarterback.

If Dallas uses similar pre-snap alignments to put Collins in favorable pass rush situations against Seumalo, Collins may come back to Dallas with another sack or two added to his total.

Ezekiel Elliott accumulates 150+ total yards

After accumulating at least 120-plus total yards in three of the first four games, Ezekiel Elliott has been quiet the past two weeks, accumulating 94 rushing yards on 32 carries (2.93 yards per carry) and six catches for 60 yards combined.

This week, Elliott faces an Eagles defense that ranks 18th in DVOA against running backs, per Football Outsiders. The Eagles defense is interesting because it possesses one of the best lines in the NFL, but the rest of the unit leaves a lot to be desired.

Therefore, if Elliott is able to get past the initial onslaught of Fletcher Cox, Michael Bennett, Brandon Graham and Co., he should be able to have some success against Philadelphia's linebackers and defensive backs.

In the run game, expect Dallas to try and run away from Philadelphia's dominant defensive line. The Cowboys would be wise to attack the edges of the Philadelphia defense with tosses and pin-and-pull sweeps.

Loved this play design from #Cowboys. The jet-sweep action causes the LBs to flow one way, giving the OL great angles to get their blocks in space, before throwing the screen to the other. pic.twitter.com/tpaE36CZSi

Furthermore, one of the Cowboys' favorite ways to slow down a potent pass rush is with a steady dose of screens, giving Elliott even more opportunities to slice and dice the second and third levels of the Eagles defense.

On top of that, the Cowboys have started experimenting with aligning Elliott outside this season, so he could see a couple targets in those situations if he gets the right matchup.

Ultimately, the Cowboys need Elliott to have a big day if they hope to have a chance to win this tough divisional contest on the road.

High frequency of play-action

While the screen game is one way to slow down an effective pass rush, the play-action passing game is another concept Dallas should use frequently against the Eagles, especially with Connor Williams potentially missing the game.

Play-action passes can slow down an effective pass rush because it forces the defensive line to honor the run instead of pinning its ears back to rush the quarterback without worry.

On top of that, using play-action puts Dak Prescott in a better position to succeed. When using play-action this year, Prescott's competition percentage has improved by 3.4 percent and his yards per attempt has improved by 3.1 yards from when he's not using play-action. Furthermore, Prescott has a 106.3 passer rating when using play-action and an 83.7 passer rating when he's not (for comparison's sake, the league's average passer rating is currently 92.5).

Play-action is an effective tool for a quarterback because it creates easy reads and natural gaps in the defense's coverage.

Dallas loves to utilize Prescott on play-action rollouts to get the ball to his tight ends in space. Using it as a constraint to their zone-running game, play-action rollout concepts work because it gets the defense to flow one way before attacking them in the other direction. Here's an example:

Here, the Cowboys are in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) with a single back set while Prescott is under center. Once the ball is snapped, Prescott executes a play-fake to Elliott, which gets Detroit's entire front seven to flow toward the far sideline, vacating space in the near-side flats for Swaim, who catches the ball with the nearest Lions defender four yards away from him. The result is a 30-yard catch-and-run from Swaim.

While Swaim will be out this week, the Cowboys can still be effective on play-action rollouts with Rico Gathers or Blake Jarwin.

There are a myriad of other play-action concepts that Cowboys can use to try and take advantage of an aggressive Eagles defense, but the play-action rollout game should be a big part of the Cowboys game plan Sunday night.